THE AUTHOR
ATTY. ALBERTO B. SIPACO JR. began his early education at Madao Elementary School in Kawayan, Biliran Province, where he graduated as valedictorian. He completed his secondary education as an academic scholar at Davao City National High School (DCNHS) in Davao City. He later earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from both the University of Mindanao in Davao City and Mindanao State University in Marawi City. He pursued a Bachelor of Laws at San Beda College and completed his Law degree at Ateneo de Davao University in 1975.
Early in his career, he worked as a field investigator for the now defunct National Grains Authority (NGA) before managing a family enterprise. In 1977, he joined the Commission on Audit (COA) as a regional administrative officer and steadily rose through the ranks to become the COA Corporate Auditor of the PAG-IBIG Fund in Makati City. After a decade in private law practice, he joined the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao, serving first as a graft investigator and later as a special prosecutor.
Subsequently, he was appointed the Regional Director of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Southern Mindanao and later served as Regional Director for Southern Mindanao of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Davao City. He would go on to become Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the state-owned Philippine Mining Development Corporation (PMDC).